Colbert’s Ratings Surge: Why Aggressive Political Humor Is Paying Off

“I laugh when I’m scared, too,” said Stephen Colbert recently, after delivering an opening-monologue joke about the latest President Trump gaffe. It was a throwaway line, something said while waiting for the guffaws to die down; I doubt it was written on his cue cards. But the remark gets to the heart of Colbert’s new surge in the ratings and as a pop-cultural force: He’s benefiting (in some ways doubtless to his regret) from the public’s widespread uneasiness about the state of America since Nov. 8, 2016.